Headless and Flapping

There is a small hamlet a couple of kilometres from us which has five houses and is inhabited by three widows with the average age, as they enthusiastically tell all, of 74.

As I quietly clean the windows of one of our gites listening to the birds and the occasional proud crow of a hen having laid an egg, I hear a slightly disturbing flapping sound and then an agitated cry as the flock of 19 hens is reduced to 18.

Melanie has expertly wrung the hens neck. It is now hanging and flapping uncontrollable from a tree, which is quite accustomed to having hens hanging from its low branches.

Melanie has disappeared to dig some carrots….